Magic Creation Question

[Goolpsy]

Hey...

Beeing a DM for quite some time, handling magic items all the time and such... my players just reached level 21... anyway

there is this thing thats been bugging me for quite some while

Could some1 tell me how to make an effect on a magic item permenent.. lets say i want a book in which every1 can read by making it cast 'read magic' on the reader?

or Casting er permenent Alarm spell?
both of these without using any means of the permenency spell...

What i understand by the rules ... it would be something like

Alarm: 1(level) x (spell level) x 750 (50 charges) x 2 (for 100 charges) = 1400
but
making it doing so like 5 times a day with a command word would be 1x1x2000 = 2000

How can this be true?? limited use, and 'more difficult' cost more??
Or am i just missing something... its been har descipher the book, but this is about the only point is jsut dont get....

 

[mirivor]

Your post is kind of difficult to understand, but it would go like this:

Permanent Alarm is a use-activated, unlimited use spell.

Spell level x caster level x 2000 GP 1 x 1 x 2000 = 2000 Gold Pieces

But there is also another multiplier. I cannot recall it but it is based on the normal spell's duration. The shorter the normal duration, the more expensive the item is to craft. A spell based on Rounds/Level has a multiplier of 5, I think, the a multiplier of 4 for 1 minute/level, then 3 for 10 minutes/lvl, and so on.

This would only be on an item, not a location. Doing this on a location would require permanancy. However, I cannot see what use you would get out of putting a permanent Alarm on an Item. It would go off so frequently that it would be annoying, as it's range is extremely limited.

Your second item, one that I presume you want to be able to cast the alarm spell 5 times a day, would be

Caster level x spell level x 2000, so 2000 GP for a 1st level caster. You could lower the price by reducing the uses per day, per the DMG.

Did I answer your questions?

 

[Goolpsy]

Yes and no, You just showed me that its just as expensive to make an item with 5 charges, as it is to make one with unlimited charges... which i simply just don't get

and what if i wanted 6 charges? Then it would be more expensive than the one with unlimited charges...

No i don't want an item wit the alarm spell, it was just an example, to compare the calculation and tell that something is either wrong in the item creation rules, or in the way i read them.

btw in the DMG it is written that: to make an item with a permement effect, make it as it had 100 charges... so...
How could you be using the 1x1x2000 (command word) for it?

 

[mirivor]

Well, I think that the designers feel, probably rightly so, that five charges per day is basically all that you will ever need.

However, it may not always be equal in cost. It all depends on the duration modifier that I mentioned.

FROM THE SRD:
"If a continuous item has an effect based on a spell with a duration measured in rounds, multiply the cost by 4. If the duration of the spell is 1 minute/level, multiply the cost by 2, and if the duration is 10 minutes/level, multiply the cost by 1.5. If the spell has a 24-hour duration or greater, divide the cost in half."

Another point that should be made is that use-activated items have no charges, although that may not matter with this particular spell.

I am assuming for the sake of argument that we are creating a stone or some other plain device to emit a continuous Alarm effect. That is a use-activated/continuous effect.(Use-activated or continuous Spell level x caster level x 2,000 gp Lantern of revealing) That is the example from the chart in the DMG. That cost is then multiplied by the duration multiplier.

I think that the problem is that you happened to find one of a handful of spells whose prices come out as being equal for both a continuous effect and a charged item. Try picking another spell to compare and I think that you would see a large difference.